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God Invites You to Embrace Struggle & Do Hard Things

Spiritual formation and growth don’t occur when we’re happy and safe. It happens when we deal with hardship and invite God into our lives. As a part of the family of God, we’re inviting you to join Senior Pastor Brian Tome and learn more about the role that struggle can play in your life as a follower of Jesus.

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    - Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads Church.
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    If you're joining us for the first time,
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    we are so glad that you're here.
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    Crossroads is one church, but with people
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    meeting all over the globe
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    in physical locations like this,
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    and in homes all over the place.
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    I actually want to give a special shout out
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    to some good friends of mine in
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    the Anywhere community meeting in places
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    like Portugal, in Spain and the UK.
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    Man, love you guys!
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    Thank you for sending us these pictures
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    of you guys with your guides. Love it!
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    - So wild we have people all over the world joining,
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    you said every continent except Antarctica.
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    - I know we're working on Antarctica, if you know anybody.
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    - You're out there, we know you. So, hey, I'm Chuck.
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    I'm one of the teaching pastors here,
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    and I'm really excited that you're joining us
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    too online to help kick off week 3 of the 10X Push.
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    So if this is your first time or you're catching up,
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    the 10X Push is this journey of sorts
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    that we're taking as a whole church together,
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    where for six weeks we've been really
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    focusing in on how does God want
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    to expand His territory tenfold
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    in our lives to grow us personally?
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    We've been talking about personal revival,
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    and then also, how does He want to do that
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    in our communities?
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    - Yeah, it's a really, really big deal.
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    And we're in week three of the Journey today,
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    but it is not too late. Hear me on this.
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    It is not too late for you to jump in with us.
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    You can actually go back,
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    and I'd highly recommend it because they've been amazing.
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    Go back and watch weeks one and two.
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    But we've got a quick recap for you
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    from last week right here.
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    - Now all of this soil is what it is,
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    like, soil is inanimate.
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    The only thing that's animate in this story
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    is God who's throwing the seed.
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    But there is the hint-hint when Jesus asks us,
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    which are we, defines who we are.
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    He's doing this so we can start to wonder,
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    "Hey, what have I got to do to break out my ground?
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    What am I going to do to defrock myself?
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    What can I do to choke out the thorns
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    before it chokes out my faith?"
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    Jesus then says this:
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    As for what was sown on good soil,
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    this is the one who hears the Word
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    and understands it.
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    He indeed bears fruit and yields,
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    in one case a hundredfold, and another 60,
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    and in another 30."
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    100, 60, 30.
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    That's what God wants for your life, by the way.
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    This isn't an organizational story
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    that Jesus is telling, it's a personal story.
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    Jesus doesn't want 10X for your life.
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    Good soil isn't 10X. It's 30, 60, 100.
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    - Man, that was so good hearing that last week
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    and just the encouragement in that.
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    You know, the scripture that Brian's referencing
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    is when Jesus talks about
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    these four different types of soil,
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    He talks about the path, rocky, thorny,
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    and then what does it look like to be good soil,
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    to allow God to move tenfold, and not just tenfold,
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    30, 60, 100 fold in our lives?
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    And the point at the end there is so powerful
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    because God wants more for you.
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    He wants more for your life,
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    all the way up to 100 fold.
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    And really though, that starts with us
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    and with the condition of our heart.
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    If you didn't get a chance to watch the message
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    last week, I encourage you to go back and watch it,
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    because it's such a great story from the Bible.
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    - Yeah. And as a church, we want to help
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    you identify how you can grow and how you can grow better.
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    There's actually a custom created
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    soil assessment for you.
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    And I know for me it was so helpful.
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    It's actually in your guidebook,
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    if you go to week two you'll find a QR code
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    that you can scan.
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    It'll just take you 5 or 10 minutes.
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    But for me, like, it honestly gave me
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    new language and new perspective on places
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    in my life and in my growth that just have felt stuck.
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    So my assessment told me that I was like the rocky soil.
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    There was, like, a fragility and things
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    that are actually blocking growth.
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    And man, this gives me new language
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    and maybe even some new habits
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    to push through that to go to a new place.
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    - Yeah, I can relate to that.
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    First of all, I love assessments.
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    I have to admit, I love, I love assessments, I do.
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    And but, man, mine was reflecting
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    that I was thorny soil
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    and that was really about being distracted.
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    So when I thought about that reflection,
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    the words worry and busy showed up a whole lot.
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    And so again, these are just ways that
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    we can lean in and listen to God.
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    And so I encourage you to do that.
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    - That's right. And hey, one last thing
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    before we get started.
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    As God is moving and stirring,
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    hopefully something in you, you might
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    find it helpful to process with other people.
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    And we have optional groups for you extroverts
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    that you can start this week.
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    Go to crossroads.net/10X.
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    Here we go for week three of the 10X Push.
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    It's not necessary for you to join
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    one of these groups, but I've just found that
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    being around other people, getting to hear your input,
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    or even us just sitting here talking.
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    Like, getting to go on a Journey
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    is really, really helpful.
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    And so that's why we don't go alone.
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    We go together.
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    Welcome to week three of the 10X Push. Let's go.
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    - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. All engines running.
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    Liftoff. We have a liftoff.
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    Apollo 11, this is Houston,
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    you are a go for staging.
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    - The reading we heard from was Apollo 8
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    I'm going to talk about today about how we do hard things,
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    how the people of God embrace and we do hard things.
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    Anybody who knows anything about the NASA program
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    knows that scientists are agreed,
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    and experts agree that the hardest thing
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    we ever did in space was Apollo 8.
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    Apollo 8 was the first mission of any human being
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    that went around the moon,
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    and they took off to beat the Russians
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    at Christmas time.
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    They were gone over Christmas.
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    And this was a huge, huge thing
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    because no one had ever done before.
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    If you ever saw Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks,
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    something went wrong.
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    But they had a basically a life raft
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    and they could jigger their systems.
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    Apollo 8 had no life raft,
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    and the authorities thought,
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    "This thing is probably not going to make it.
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    And we've ruined Christmas for every American forever,
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    because they're going to look up at the moon
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    and they'll see three dead astronauts
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    rotating around the moon forever.
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    Because once they die up there,
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    if something goes wrong, we can never get them back."
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    And they get up there.
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    One of the issues with the mission was,
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    Frank Borman was the crew commander,
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    him and Bill Anders and Frank Lovell,
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    and he was constantly upset with NASA because
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    they want him to film things and he was like,
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    "No, no, no, the mission is go up
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    around the moon orbit and be back."
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    And they finally just pulled rank on him
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    and said, "No. The mission includes P.R. for America.
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    We need America to like this, so we have to do this.
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    We have to film this."
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    He didn't want to film anything.
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    They got up to the moon,
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    and when they got up to the moon,
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    the government was so freaked out
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    that they weren't going to film anything.
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    They never censored anything that they said.
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    So it was just up to them.
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    So they pulled out the Bible, and one by one,
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    they took trips, they took it,
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    and they went and did Genesis one.
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    And it was perfect and it was beautiful.
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    Of course, Madalyn Murray O'Hair,
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    the leading atheist at the time,
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    then brought suit against the government
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    for separation of church and state.
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    But that's another story.
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    There's just a gravity that we see God
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    and see God, whether we see Him on the moon.
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    And by the way, technology enabled us to get to the moon.
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    We're going to be talking today about
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    one of the things that we do as a church.
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    We do hard things, and we also embrace technology.
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    Just as technology got us to the moon,
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    also, we believe technology helps us in ministry.
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    Go ahead and have a seat and let's look at this.
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    In the book of Isaiah, God's call
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    to think bigger and push for more is clear.
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    Enlarge the place of your tent
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    is an exhortation to expand the territory
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    God has already given us, the place where
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    the favor of God has collided again and again
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    with the gifts He's put in all of us
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    producing supernatural results.
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    Over the last 28 years, we have taken
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    a lot of ground for the Kingdom of God.
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    But there are four territories that God
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    has clearly given us where we have seen
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    His favor to go farther than
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    we could ever have dreamed possible,
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    and where He is now calling us to not hold back,
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    to say yes to taking a 10X moonshot,
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    to seeing His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
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    The days of creating a great experience
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    and expecting people to just show up are long gone.
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    We have to bring the life-changing message of Jesus
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    to where people spend the majority of their time,
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    and that is online.
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    Through Innovative Digital, we'll be expanding
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    the Crossroads Anywhere App to include
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    bilingual capabilities, and we're developing
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    new apps for students, kids and families
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    that will have student connection tools
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    and interactive games that teach
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    biblical principles and parenting tips.
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    Our broadcast stage is ready for an upgrade
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    to tell the greatest story with
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    the greatest storytelling tools.
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    Using the same best in class technology
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    as the Sphere in Las Vegas we'll create
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    fully immersive experiences
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    both in room and on screen.
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    These new tools will help us capture imaginations,
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    open ears, and fill hearts no matter where you live.
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    - When the pandemic happened, my church shut down.
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    I needed something.
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    - About 7 or 8 years ago, I left
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    and went to Florida and couldn't find a church home
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    for all those years.
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    - We moved to Boston in 2021.
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    - And then we started to visit other churches at that time.
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    - But it wasn't what we were accustomed to
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    and what we enjoyed with Crossroads.
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    - I had been looking for churches before.
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    I was seeking in that sense,
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    but I was not finding what what I needed.
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    - Saw this cohort online, and it was
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    21 Days to be a Better Dude;
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    who doesn't want that, right?
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    I tried it and something just clicked.
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    And for an hour and a half every Wednesday
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    I had community, I had a group of guys
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    that I was doing life with.
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    I ended up doing Man Camp with a couple of those guys.
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    It just feels like where I'm supposed to be every time.
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    - When the pandemic hit,
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    we started doing Online Crossroads.
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    We were watching online and realized
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    we were missing something.
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    We were approached about doing tables
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    and inviting people into our homes.
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    I was always afraid of rejection.
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    What I didn't realize was how many people
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    were craving an invitation.
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    When that invitation came, you could see
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    the lights in their eyes, like, "Yes, yes, I would like to."
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    - Several years ago, we had a hurricane.
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    Every night you're going to bed
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    you hear countless generators running
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    all over the neighborhood.
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    - And nobody's saying anything to anybody.
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    Nobody's interacting.
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    Nobody's even going out and saying,
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    "Hey, do you need anything? Can I help you?"
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    But I wanted to change that.
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    And then when this whole table thing came about,
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    I thought, what a great idea.
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    That's how we do Jesus to people, you know?
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    And that's how we become Jesus to people.
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    - Although I'm from Ohio, my first interaction
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    with Crossroads was actually in Brazil.
  • 00:28:06
    I realized it was something very, very different
  • 00:28:08
    and it fit what I had been looking for for a while.
  • 00:28:11
    - Every Sunday we have regular visitors
  • 00:28:15
    and we do brunch.
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    And, you know, our kids see these people
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    at the dinner table and we watch service together
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    and we talk about it.
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    - That consistent, you know, rhythm
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    of coming together and then having
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    some sort of in-depth conversation after,
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    you know, after the services watching them.
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    That's an important part of community
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    that maybe was accelerated in moving to a new place.
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    - We actually joined a marriage cohort last year.
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    We're looking forward to opening up a table
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    at our future home.
  • 00:28:44
    That's where Crossroads Anywhere can
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    actually enable us to to build more, to do more.
  • 00:28:50
    - I invest in a church that's so far away.
  • 00:28:52
    It's not. It's like, like, it's anytime
  • 00:28:53
    I turn on my computer,
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    it's any time I pick up the phone.
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    It's just my home.
  • 00:28:57
    - So the Anywhere community, it's sort of become
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    a place where those people that are far away
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    are not far away anymore.
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    Somebody's always there.
  • 00:29:11
    The people interacting with each other,
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    the people caring for each other,
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    I think that's the big thing.
  • 00:29:16
    And you don't have to be in the same zip code
  • 00:29:19
    to do that, not anymore, not in this world.
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    You're a click away.
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    - It's clearly from God. It's an answer to prayer.
  • 00:29:28
    - Isn't that encouraging what technology can do?
  • 00:29:32
    We are in the Push for 10X where we have a dream
  • 00:29:35
    of having Crossroads being 10X the influence
  • 00:29:38
    in the Kingdom of God and the size as we are right now.
  • 00:29:41
    And we're pushing not just for that to happen
  • 00:29:43
    over the next ten years.
  • 00:29:44
    We're pushing all of us.
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    We're pushing all of us to say, "Hey,
  • 00:29:48
    do you want to spiritually grow?
  • 00:29:50
    Do you want to go deeper with God?
  • 00:29:51
    Do you want to have a peace that passes understanding?"
  • 00:29:54
    We're getting us rooted and today
  • 00:29:56
    I'm going to continue to push you today.
  • 00:29:58
    Is that okay?
  • 00:29:59
    Doesn't matter. I'm going to do it.
  • 00:30:01
    And I'm also -- I'm also wooing you
  • 00:30:04
    to be a part of something that's really fun.
  • 00:30:06
    I've been doing mission briefings,
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    as have all of our community pastors
  • 00:30:10
    and some of our teaching pastors.
  • 00:30:11
    And maybe you haven't gotten an invitation
  • 00:30:13
    to one for whatever reason.
  • 00:30:15
    I want to let you know the mission,
  • 00:30:16
    we want to let you know the mission
  • 00:30:18
    of what these things are.
  • 00:30:19
    There's four areas that we call territories.
  • 00:30:22
    These are places, things that we own, fields,
  • 00:30:24
    things that we feel God's given us, like your family.
  • 00:30:27
    That family is a territory.
  • 00:30:28
    You've got to take care of it.
  • 00:30:29
    God has stewarded that to you,
  • 00:30:32
    and you have to take care of it.
  • 00:30:33
    And there's four unique areas
  • 00:30:35
    that God has called us to make a big impact in.
  • 00:30:39
    One of them is technological and digital,
  • 00:30:42
    and we're going to dig into that
  • 00:30:44
    if you want to come to that mission briefing,
  • 00:30:45
    if you haven't been to one yet, next weekend,
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    next weekend, after every service at every site,
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    that's November 3rd on Sunday,
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    after every service at every site,
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    there'll be a mission briefing.
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    Just show up, show up.
  • 00:30:59
    Make sure you understand the really unique things
  • 00:31:01
    that God is inviting us to.
  • 00:31:03
    And the next day, November 4th at 7:30,
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    Kyle Ranson, our lead pastor, will be having one
  • 00:31:10
    on digital, digital sharing all the same information.
  • 00:31:14
    You can go to crossroads.net to see that.
  • 00:31:16
    Okay, today I'm going to start pushing you a little bit harder.
  • 00:31:19
    We haven't really talked money at all,
  • 00:31:21
    as we said the first couple of weeks
  • 00:31:23
    of this Journey, I'm going to start dabbling
  • 00:31:25
    into that today and talking about
  • 00:31:27
    how we do hard things.
  • 00:31:29
    So let's pray before we go any further.
  • 00:31:32
    God, I want You to have our time today,
  • 00:31:35
    and I want You to have our hearts,
  • 00:31:36
    and I want You to have my heart.
  • 00:31:38
    I want You to have my mind.
  • 00:31:39
    God, help me to be in tune with what's happening
  • 00:31:42
    in our rooms today and help my,
  • 00:31:45
    oh, my mouth to be just speaking what
  • 00:31:48
    You want spoken to your people, to your children.
  • 00:31:52
    Thanks for the honor to talk about transcendent things.
  • 00:31:54
    And it's really a joy, Father. So, here we go.
  • 00:31:59
    I pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen.
  • 00:32:03
    In the book of Genesis 12:1-2, we see
  • 00:32:07
    somebody who is really pushed really hard.
  • 00:32:10
    Sometimes when you get pushed,
  • 00:32:11
    it doesn't mean it's going to be painful.
  • 00:32:13
    It can be awesome, but it comes out of nowhere
  • 00:32:15
    and it's something you wouldn't normally think of.
  • 00:32:17
    It's the biblical hero Abraham,
  • 00:32:21
    who at this point his name is Abram.
  • 00:32:23
    And I'll just read you Genesis 12:2.
  • 00:32:26
    This is a wanderer.
  • 00:32:29
    He doesn't have a home, really.
  • 00:32:31
    He doesn't have a home territory, a home turf.
  • 00:32:33
    He has a father who's a worshiper of idols.
  • 00:32:36
    There's no such thing as a Ten Commandments yet.
  • 00:32:39
    There's no such thing as people just
  • 00:32:41
    understanding a loving, transcendent, amazing God.
  • 00:32:45
    All that was going to come after him.
  • 00:32:47
    And here's where this loving, transcendent God
  • 00:32:49
    comes to him and gives him a vision for his life.
  • 00:32:53
    It says this:
  • 00:33:11
    I will make you a great nation and bless you.
  • 00:33:15
    This is a remarkable thing for Abraham to learn
  • 00:33:21
    because he's older and he doesn't have any kids.
  • 00:33:26
    He doesn't have any kids.
  • 00:33:27
    And now he's told, if you look up, up in the sky
  • 00:33:32
    and you notice all the stars, you're going to have
  • 00:33:35
    descendants that outnumber the stars.
  • 00:33:40
    Mind blowing to him because they're old.
  • 00:33:43
    Sarah is past the age where you have --
  • 00:33:46
    Are able to have women -- or excuse me,
  • 00:33:48
    able to have future women and able to have future men.
  • 00:33:51
    She's past that age.
  • 00:33:53
    By the way, have I told you about my Amish joke?
  • 00:33:56
    Have I told you about that?
  • 00:33:58
    Okay, save that for another day. Save for another day.
  • 00:34:01
    Or if you ever get to camp, it's all --
  • 00:34:02
    It always brings the house down.
  • 00:34:04
    Anyway, where was I? Sarah. Sarah.
  • 00:34:06
    Yeah. Sarah. Sarah and Abraham.
  • 00:34:08
    This is a crazy vision that God has given them.
  • 00:34:12
    He has a hard time believing it.
  • 00:34:16
    Well, what do you know? What do you know?
  • 00:34:18
    Some time later, some time later,
  • 00:34:21
    God comes to him and they have a child.
  • 00:34:25
    His name is Isaac.
  • 00:34:26
    And this whole thing is difficult.
  • 00:34:29
    This whole journey is difficult.
  • 00:34:32
    We're going to have really high parts in our journey.
  • 00:34:34
    We've had high parts.
  • 00:34:35
    We're gonna continue to have high parts.
  • 00:34:37
    And we're going to have some really difficult parts.
  • 00:34:40
    Because part of what happens in the family of God,
  • 00:34:42
    if you're ever going to be in the family of God,
  • 00:34:44
    one of the things that our family does
  • 00:34:46
    is we do hard things.
  • 00:34:48
    That's what God's people do.
  • 00:34:50
    We do hard things.
  • 00:34:54
    Why I'm so inspired by the space program
  • 00:34:57
    isn't just the technology that they leveraged
  • 00:35:01
    to get to do something no one had ever done before,
  • 00:35:03
    it was get to the moon.
  • 00:35:04
    But it's also the vision
  • 00:35:05
    that John F. Kennedy gave America.
  • 00:35:09
    Famous speech happens when he's down
  • 00:35:12
    at Rice University, a pretty small university
  • 00:35:15
    relative to the University of Texas.
  • 00:35:17
    And he cast his vision for getting the moon.
  • 00:35:19
    And he said, "Why would we set our sights on the moon?"
  • 00:35:24
    Why does Rice play Texas?
  • 00:35:28
    Which of course, huge state, Texas University.
  • 00:35:32
    Why does Rice play Texas?
  • 00:35:34
    "Because it's hard," that's what he says,
  • 00:35:37
    "Because it's hard."
  • 00:35:39
    I mean, many people who think that if it's hard,
  • 00:35:43
    then God must be not be involved.
  • 00:35:45
    I mean, many people who think that if it's hard,
  • 00:35:48
    then something has gone wrong somewhere.
  • 00:35:50
    No, sometimes things are just hard.
  • 00:35:54
    And people in the family of God understand
  • 00:35:56
    this is part of our family history.
  • 00:35:57
    People like Abraham have done hard,
  • 00:36:00
    incredibly hard things.
  • 00:36:02
    And this is who we are, is what we do.
  • 00:36:04
    And our country doesn't understand this anymore.
  • 00:36:06
    Our country used to do hard things.
  • 00:36:08
    We used to do huge, massive things
  • 00:36:11
    like get to the moon, take massive risks.
  • 00:36:14
    We used to build dams.
  • 00:36:16
    We used to have public works projects.
  • 00:36:18
    We used to do super highways
  • 00:36:20
    and all sorts of things that were not seen before
  • 00:36:24
    and doing them on an utter mass scale.
  • 00:36:27
    Take moonshots, buy Alaska,
  • 00:36:30
    do the Louisiana Purchase, really difficult things.
  • 00:36:32
    And what's the last difficult thing
  • 00:36:34
    that we've ever done as a country?
  • 00:36:35
    It's hard to think.
  • 00:36:36
    We don't want to do any difficult things.
  • 00:36:38
    We just want to give people money.
  • 00:36:40
    We've talked about this before, like,
  • 00:36:41
    how do you get elected to office?
  • 00:36:43
    Promise people money, whether you're poor or rich.
  • 00:36:45
    If you're poor, here's some money for it.
  • 00:36:47
    If you're rich, we're going to lower your taxes
  • 00:36:49
    so you don't have to give any money.
  • 00:36:50
    Nobody should do anything hard, that's basically
  • 00:36:52
    the message of modern day America today.
  • 00:36:54
    No one should do anything hard.
  • 00:36:55
    Everybody should get whatever they want,
  • 00:36:57
    as our national debt utterly skyrockets
  • 00:36:59
    and is ridiculously high.
  • 00:37:02
    We don't want to do hard things.
  • 00:37:04
    We don't want to make hard decisions.
  • 00:37:06
    But this is not what the family of God is about.
  • 00:37:10
    In the family of God we embrace hard things.
  • 00:37:14
    Jesus says, "In this life you will have trouble."
  • 00:37:17
    That's what he says.
  • 00:37:19
    That's a promise from Jesus.
  • 00:37:21
    In this life you will have trouble.
  • 00:37:24
    What's really crazy is when it gets hard,
  • 00:37:28
    not because something was done to you,
  • 00:37:30
    but because you step into something
  • 00:37:33
    and you voluntarily, by faith, take on something
  • 00:37:36
    that's hard and difficult.
  • 00:37:39
    I am a bit further along in this journey
  • 00:37:42
    than you all, because I've wrestled with this
  • 00:37:45
    with God over this six week Push for a year,
  • 00:37:48
    over a year, and wrestled with it for a long time,
  • 00:37:51
    and I'm excited about it.
  • 00:37:52
    It took me a while to get excited about it,
  • 00:37:54
    because I knew how hard and difficult it would be.
  • 00:37:56
    And I knew there's coming at the end of our time
  • 00:37:59
    an ability to give a financial contribution
  • 00:38:04
    above and beyond your regular giving,
  • 00:38:06
    above and beyond your tithe,
  • 00:38:07
    or getting close to the tithe for three years.
  • 00:38:09
    I know that's coming. We know that's coming.
  • 00:38:11
    If you didn't know, I just told you.
  • 00:38:12
    I knew it was coming for a long time
  • 00:38:14
    and I've been through a bunch of things like that,
  • 00:38:16
    and it just it was it was hard for me to crank it up.
  • 00:38:21
    Right? Because I'm thinking, "Man,
  • 00:38:23
    I've done this a lot. Shouldn't I be, like,
  • 00:38:25
    thinking about retirement?
  • 00:38:28
    Shouldn't I be thinking about, you know, something else?
  • 00:38:30
    This is this -- Jeez. My gosh.
  • 00:38:32
    It just keeps going on and on and on and on."
  • 00:38:34
    And I wrestled with it.
  • 00:38:35
    I've been wrestling with it and wrestling with it.
  • 00:38:37
    And God obviously eventually got ahold of me.
  • 00:38:40
    And I've had to lead our staff and others
  • 00:38:42
    through why this is really the right thing
  • 00:38:45
    for the Kingdom of God.
  • 00:38:47
    Our staff was away, leaders in our staff were away
  • 00:38:50
    trying to hear from God on what this all meant.
  • 00:38:54
    And I wasn't leading the meeting.
  • 00:38:55
    Somebody else did, and they said, "Okay,
  • 00:38:58
    let's all go off and let's just have
  • 00:39:00
    some time with God, spend some time with God,
  • 00:39:03
    and then come back here and tell us what you hear."
  • 00:39:06
    So everyone was dismissed for, I don't know,
  • 00:39:08
    we went where everyone for, I don't know,
  • 00:39:10
    about an hour and then came back.
  • 00:39:11
    And what came to me, the words just started flowing.
  • 00:39:15
    I just typed out this journal entry.
  • 00:39:18
    It was amazingly fluent and I just read it
  • 00:39:21
    to people when we got back as my contribution.
  • 00:39:23
    And I thought, I've saved that.
  • 00:39:25
    I thought I would read it to you.
  • 00:39:26
    Do you mind if I read this to you?
  • 00:39:28
    All right, here we go. Here's what it is.
  • 00:39:31
    Uh, this is exactly what it is.
  • 00:39:33
    There's also going to be a long Bible verse in there,
  • 00:39:36
    and there's a bunch of people's names
  • 00:39:37
    who you might not know.
  • 00:39:38
    I don't have time to explain all of them.
  • 00:39:40
    Just understand all these people's names,
  • 00:39:42
    they all did hard things. Okay, here's what it is.
  • 00:39:45
    Every move of God comes on the back
  • 00:39:48
    of someone doing something hard.
  • 00:39:51
    Every story in the Bible that inspires us
  • 00:39:54
    is of an individual doing something
  • 00:39:56
    that is hard under the authority of God.
  • 00:39:59
    They often aren't hearing directly from God to do it,
  • 00:40:03
    but they embrace the suck
  • 00:40:05
    and they move forward in faithfulness.
  • 00:40:08
    Why am I waiting for the clouds to part?
  • 00:40:11
    Why do I think God is going to give me
  • 00:40:13
    an obvious word and the pieces
  • 00:40:15
    are going to fall into place?
  • 00:40:17
    The fact that it is hard probably is all I need.
  • 00:40:21
    It's hard for Abraham to trust God with the dream.
  • 00:40:24
    Hard for Sarah to hit the bedroom
  • 00:40:25
    when the way of women had ceased.
  • 00:40:27
    Hard for Abraham to sacrifice his son.
  • 00:40:30
    Hard for Moses to turn his back on his family
  • 00:40:33
    and lead God's family to freedom.
  • 00:40:35
    Hard for Rahab to sell out her countrymen
  • 00:40:37
    and be a spy for an invader.
  • 00:40:39
    Hard for Israel to cross the Jordan River.
  • 00:40:41
    Hard for David to go against Goliath.
  • 00:40:43
    Hard for Hosea to marry a prostitute.
  • 00:40:46
    Hard for Mary to have a divine child out of wedlock.
  • 00:40:49
    Hard for Joseph to suffer public shame.
  • 00:40:51
    Hard for Jesus to be born without a crib.
  • 00:40:54
    Hard for Peter to get out of the boat.
  • 00:40:57
    Hard to do the Great Commission.
  • 00:40:59
    Hard for Paul to walk away from
  • 00:41:01
    his professional and spiritual heritage.
  • 00:41:03
    Hard for Stephen to be martyred.
  • 00:41:05
    Hebrews 11 is all about hard things
  • 00:41:08
    that people in the Hall of Faith did.
  • 00:41:11
    Maybe our faith story isn't as inspiring
  • 00:41:15
    because we shun things that are difficult.
  • 00:41:18
    Maybe the shot in our arm that our faith needs
  • 00:41:20
    is a swift kick into a hard place,
  • 00:41:23
    where it is dark and hard.
  • 00:41:25
    We're here because someone before us did something hard.
  • 00:41:29
    Jesus died a hard and painful death.
  • 00:41:32
    Our parents may have made hard choices
  • 00:41:33
    to raise us in the faith,
  • 00:41:35
    or a friend made the hard choice
  • 00:41:36
    to share their faith and maybe get judged.
  • 00:41:40
    Or we came to Crossroads because someone before
  • 00:41:43
    made the hard choice to go without cable,
  • 00:41:45
    savings, house addition or something,
  • 00:41:47
    so that money could give you a parking spot,
  • 00:41:50
    a seat, or a web address
  • 00:41:52
    with all the back office support necessary.
  • 00:41:55
    Hebrews 11:32-39. And what more?
  • 00:42:38
    This is all the Bible, by the way.
  • 00:43:07
    These people didn't see the awakening
  • 00:43:09
    that would come by the Spirit, but they didn't care.
  • 00:43:12
    They just wanted to be faithful,
  • 00:43:14
    even when it came with a cost.
  • 00:43:18
    Friends, that's why you're here.
  • 00:43:20
    I don't know, I don't know where you are in your faith,
  • 00:43:22
    where you are in understanding Jesus.
  • 00:43:24
    I don't know if you've come to Him, if you haven't.
  • 00:43:26
    Understand, all of us are only here
  • 00:43:29
    because people did hard things.
  • 00:43:31
    Jesus went to a cross.
  • 00:43:34
    Early followers of Christ
  • 00:43:36
    were likewise crucified upside down.
  • 00:43:38
    There were missionaries that have gone all over
  • 00:43:40
    the world and people have laid their life down.
  • 00:43:43
    We're here because our family,
  • 00:43:46
    the family of God, does hard things.
  • 00:43:49
    And we live in a culture where if it's hard,
  • 00:43:51
    God must not love me.
  • 00:43:53
    And I'm out of here and I'm upset
  • 00:43:55
    and my faith is struggling and I can't --
  • 00:43:57
    That's fine. Let's all have times
  • 00:43:59
    where our faith is struggling.
  • 00:44:00
    Let's do that, but let's also say
  • 00:44:03
    stuff gets hard and I'm okay if God has me.
  • 00:44:07
    Let's also say stuff gets hard
  • 00:44:09
    and God actually invites me to do hard things.
  • 00:44:13
    This is a form of Christianity
  • 00:44:15
    that is not preached and is not embraced,
  • 00:44:17
    which is why we're so weak and we have
  • 00:44:19
    so few yeses to our prayers
  • 00:44:20
    and so little joy that passes understanding.
  • 00:44:24
    Because there's a different level many people
  • 00:44:27
    need to hit that don't even know that level is there.
  • 00:44:30
    Now let's go back to Genesis 22,
  • 00:44:33
    and let's see how hard it gets for Abraham
  • 00:44:36
    and how rewarding as well.
  • 00:44:38
    So now this is ten chapters after I read before
  • 00:44:42
    and let's just see what happens.
  • 00:44:44
    They have a child, miraculously,
  • 00:44:45
    he and Sarah have a child, have a son, eldest son.
  • 00:44:49
    In that culture and society that's really important
  • 00:44:51
    because it's the eldest son that
  • 00:44:54
    sets the course for descendants
  • 00:44:55
    and takes care of the family when the father dies
  • 00:44:58
    and he's a sign that something is happening good.
  • 00:45:00
    Here's what it says:
  • 00:45:17
    Wait, God, you said my descendants
  • 00:45:20
    would outnumber the stars,
  • 00:45:22
    and you've given me a descendant miraculously.
  • 00:45:25
    And now you want me to go and sacrifice him?
  • 00:45:30
    See, modern religions have all gotten wise that,
  • 00:45:34
    you know, child sacrifice is a bad idea.
  • 00:45:36
    It's a bad idea.
  • 00:45:37
    But ancient religions, that wasn't the case.
  • 00:45:39
    This was very, very, very, very, very, very common.
  • 00:45:43
    So when Abraham hears this, he doesn't think,
  • 00:45:46
    "I've never heard of such a thing."
  • 00:45:48
    He thinks to himself probably,
  • 00:45:50
    "I didn't know that You were that kind of God.
  • 00:45:52
    And this really doesn't make sense,
  • 00:45:54
    given the promise that You've made me,
  • 00:45:56
    that this child is supposed to be
  • 00:45:59
    the fulfillment of this."
  • 00:46:00
    So it's a hard thing that he's invited to do
  • 00:46:04
    and he's asked to do. Verse 3 it keeps going.
  • 00:46:10
    "Come on," he said to him, "Come along now, donkey,"
  • 00:46:26
    Gets up, takes two young men. Why?
  • 00:46:28
    Why does he take two young men?
  • 00:46:32
    Interesting theory why he has to take
  • 00:46:34
    two young men with him.
  • 00:46:35
    He needs to take two young men with him
  • 00:46:37
    because he needs to manhandle Isaac.
  • 00:46:40
    And it's not necessarily because he's
  • 00:46:42
    a little squirmy, a little squirmy lad.
  • 00:46:45
    It's because increasing numbers of scholars,
  • 00:46:47
    including rabbinical schools of thought,
  • 00:46:50
    are convinced that Isaac
  • 00:46:53
    is not some little 4 or 5 year old.
  • 00:46:56
    He's actually somewhere between 30 and 37.
  • 00:47:03
    I didn't understand when I went over
  • 00:47:06
    until I went to Israel how significant
  • 00:47:08
    this story is in terms of redemptive history.
  • 00:47:11
    First time I went to Israel, there's churches
  • 00:47:13
    that are on top of places where
  • 00:47:16
    something significant in the Bible took place.
  • 00:47:18
    People built a church to memorialize it,
  • 00:47:20
    and I just never realized how important
  • 00:47:24
    this scene was, because it comes up again
  • 00:47:26
    and again and again and again and again.
  • 00:47:28
    This scene of Abraham taking Isaac
  • 00:47:30
    up on the mountain to sacrifice him.
  • 00:47:34
    And then I started to realize,
  • 00:47:35
    oh, it's because this is a type or a prefigure,
  • 00:47:41
    or in essence, a physical prophecy
  • 00:47:44
    of what's going to happen with God
  • 00:47:46
    because God the Father takes His Son Jesus
  • 00:47:51
    up on a mountain and He has Him sacrificed.
  • 00:47:55
    That's the New Testament gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • 00:47:57
    And Jesus is about 30 to 37 years old,
  • 00:48:02
    probably 33 years old.
  • 00:48:04
    There's a lot of parallels here that are happening.
  • 00:48:07
    Difficult things.
  • 00:48:09
    Two young studs along with Abraham,
  • 00:48:12
    probably thinking, "I'm going to have to
  • 00:48:14
    manhandle my son if he doesn't want to do this."
  • 00:48:18
    Verse four.
  • 00:48:22
    Third day on this journey, third day,
  • 00:48:25
    and sees it from afar.
  • 00:48:27
    Jesus, by the way, is crucified,
  • 00:48:30
    and on the third day He is resurrected from the dead.
  • 00:48:33
    Three day journey, very significant with Isaac.
  • 00:48:35
    Three day journey, very significant for for Jesus.
  • 00:48:41
    Parallels are pretty interesting and unmistakable.
  • 00:48:44
    Verse five. Verse five says this:
  • 00:48:58
    And Abraham, by the way, boy, it says boy in this translation.
  • 00:49:01
    But I looked at it, it doesn't mean little child there,
  • 00:49:04
    just in case you're curious.
  • 00:49:10
    Just like Jesus had wood laid on Him,
  • 00:49:14
    it was a cross that was laid on Him
  • 00:49:16
    when He went to the top of His mountain.
  • 00:49:24
    And Isaac said to his father Abraham,
  • 00:49:28
    he said, "My father."
  • 00:49:29
    "Here I am, my son."
  • 00:49:31
    He said, "Behold the fire and the wood,
  • 00:49:33
    but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
  • 00:49:36
    Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself
  • 00:49:39
    the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
  • 00:49:41
    So they went both of them together.
  • 00:49:43
    So it looks like it may not have sunk in yet
  • 00:49:46
    with I with Isaac exactly what's going to happen.
  • 00:50:01
    Isaac apparently is going along with this now.
  • 00:50:03
    He's not showing any signs of running away.
  • 00:50:30
    This is the dream.
  • 00:50:31
    God gives him a dream, and then God has him
  • 00:50:34
    put the dream on the line by having his son killed.
  • 00:50:37
    And why would God do this?
  • 00:50:39
    Because God is testing him.
  • 00:50:42
    He wants to know, am I really your God?
  • 00:50:46
    Do you really love me?
  • 00:50:47
    Am I first? Am I first?
  • 00:50:50
    Am I in number one place?
  • 00:50:52
    Do you want the blessings or do you want me?
  • 00:50:56
    Do you want a relationship with me
  • 00:50:58
    or do you want an easy life?
  • 00:51:02
    There are times when God is going to do this to you.
  • 00:51:05
    He's going to intentionally have you
  • 00:51:06
    go through something hard.
  • 00:51:08
    One, because that's how you're formed,
  • 00:51:10
    because you're not spiritually formed
  • 00:51:12
    and you go to the beach on vacation.
  • 00:51:14
    It's wonderful. It's great.
  • 00:51:16
    But we all know this, we're spiritually formed
  • 00:51:19
    through those times where we got ripped through
  • 00:51:21
    a knothole and we just barely make it to the other side.
  • 00:51:24
    And then we're strengthened
  • 00:51:26
    and God can meet us on vacation.
  • 00:51:27
    But we all know that we never remember
  • 00:51:29
    the vacation where everything went according to plan.
  • 00:51:32
    We remember the one where the room got canceled,
  • 00:51:34
    where the weather was horrible.
  • 00:51:37
    That's what it is in spiritual formation.
  • 00:51:39
    It's the difficult things that God uses to form us,
  • 00:51:42
    to push us into new places.
  • 00:51:45
    And this is how Abraham is getting pushed in this place.
  • 00:51:49
    So what if God still does this today?
  • 00:51:53
    What if God still to this day is calling people
  • 00:51:58
    to make sacrifices that test us
  • 00:52:02
    whether or not we want God more than him?
  • 00:52:07
    So I think about this.
  • 00:52:09
    I think, you know, God has blessed me with a lot.
  • 00:52:11
    Let me tell you some of the things
  • 00:52:12
    that God has blessed me with.
  • 00:52:13
    There's a bunch of things that He's blessed me with.
  • 00:52:15
    And this table is sort of the -- it's wood.
  • 00:52:19
    It's not stone, but it's sort of the altar. Right?
  • 00:52:21
    It's on the table.
  • 00:52:23
    Now, when God put Isaac on the table,
  • 00:52:27
    put him on the table, he was willing for it,
  • 00:52:30
    for him to be taken away.
  • 00:52:31
    Fortunately, he was not taken away.
  • 00:52:34
    He wasn't taken away.
  • 00:52:35
    But the exercise of putting our lives
  • 00:52:38
    on the table is an exercise of saying,
  • 00:52:40
    do I, do I love God or I do I love this?
  • 00:52:44
    Do I want God or do I want this?
  • 00:52:46
    Is my biggest fears losing these things
  • 00:52:51
    or is my biggest fear losing a relationship
  • 00:52:53
    with God and connection with God?
  • 00:52:55
    And it's healthy.
  • 00:52:56
    And I'm gonna encourage you to do this.
  • 00:52:58
    In fact, in your guide, which -- isn't it great?
  • 00:53:00
    Isn't this helpful for our growth?
  • 00:53:02
    Hasn't it been fantastic? Yeah.
  • 00:53:03
    In your guide is you're going to see this week
  • 00:53:05
    in the back there's going to be a whole list
  • 00:53:08
    of things just to stimulate in this process,
  • 00:53:11
    you in this process that you can do on your own.
  • 00:53:13
    I'll just give you some of my processing,
  • 00:53:15
    things that -- things that
  • 00:53:18
    I'm putting on the table that are good things.
  • 00:53:20
    I'm thankful for these things.
  • 00:53:22
    And I'm just recognizing, God, these are yours.
  • 00:53:24
    First, there's my family. My family right here.
  • 00:53:29
    My my three kids, three son-in law, uh, whatever.
  • 00:53:35
    Three kids and their spouses
  • 00:53:38
    and my five grandkids and one grandkid
  • 00:53:42
    on the way in my and my daughter's belly.
  • 00:53:44
    So six grandkids are coming.
  • 00:53:46
    Yeah. It's pretty -- it's pretty fun.
  • 00:53:47
    And I put this up here because I remind myself
  • 00:53:50
    they're on the table, because why?
  • 00:53:52
    Because they're not my kids.
  • 00:53:54
    They're God's kids.
  • 00:53:56
    I am meant to steward this as best I can,
  • 00:54:00
    but they're God's kids.
  • 00:54:04
    The worst part of my job,
  • 00:54:06
    it's happened more times than I can --
  • 00:54:08
    That I even want to remember.
  • 00:54:09
    The worst part of my job is when I'm involved
  • 00:54:12
    with a funeral with a child who has had
  • 00:54:15
    a premature death in our church.
  • 00:54:17
    It's horrible. Horrible, always is, horrible.
  • 00:54:26
    And if I talk to the parents or parents
  • 00:54:29
    based on where they are or how I feel they are,
  • 00:54:33
    if they're able to receive certain words,
  • 00:54:36
    I'll say something like this.
  • 00:54:40
    "This is really hard. I know, I don't understand.
  • 00:54:44
    I haven't been through it, thankfully,
  • 00:54:46
    but I know who does understand.
  • 00:54:49
    God understands. Your heavenly Father understands
  • 00:54:51
    because He lost a child, too.
  • 00:54:53
    And maybe it's in this moment where we recognize
  • 00:54:56
    these kids were never our kids,
  • 00:54:58
    and they're home with their Heavenly Father
  • 00:55:00
    instead of here.
  • 00:55:01
    And as horrible as it is, as horrible as it is,
  • 00:55:04
    you might want to hang on to that."
  • 00:55:06
    I don't know if you ever get over fully losing a child,
  • 00:55:08
    but the ones that I know that
  • 00:55:10
    seem to have gotten over it,
  • 00:55:11
    or at least have recaptured joy
  • 00:55:13
    and laughter in their life, are people
  • 00:55:15
    who have sensed that like,
  • 00:55:16
    "These weren't my kids, and they're gone.
  • 00:55:19
    God probably didn't take them.
  • 00:55:22
    He allowed them to be taken, but they weren't mine."
  • 00:55:24
    I put it on the table.
  • 00:55:26
    My family. My family is on the table.
  • 00:55:29
    My house, my house. It's a wonderful house.
  • 00:55:33
    It's the only house I own.
  • 00:55:35
    And, well, the bank partially owns it.
  • 00:55:39
    And but I recognize this is not my house.
  • 00:55:42
    It's God's house. It's God's.
  • 00:55:44
    He lets me live there, whatever it is.
  • 00:55:46
    And I put that on the table and say,
  • 00:55:48
    "All of that, God, that's yours.
  • 00:55:49
    And you can take this back at any time You want."
  • 00:55:52
    I mean, there's people in the book of Acts
  • 00:55:53
    who sold their homes, sold their homes
  • 00:55:55
    for the cause of God.
  • 00:55:57
    So I can't think just because I have this home
  • 00:55:59
    that I shouldn't sell it someday
  • 00:56:01
    and give all the money to X, Y, Z.
  • 00:56:03
    God, it's on the table.
  • 00:56:04
    I'm not protecting it.
  • 00:56:06
    I've got, uh, oh, we have cars in our family,
  • 00:56:10
    Lib and I, my little white pickup truck.
  • 00:56:12
    And Lib's got her red -- or black Cherokee.
  • 00:56:16
    They're your cars, God. They're not my cars.
  • 00:56:19
    And even, like, staff members, like Kyle Ranson.
  • 00:56:22
    This is Kyle Ranson right here.
  • 00:56:23
    This is. This is him. This is him.
  • 00:56:27
    He needs a stepladder to get into my car.
  • 00:56:30
    He does, but that's little cute Kyle.
  • 00:56:33
    There he is. Nice little cute Kyle.
  • 00:56:35
    No, I don't own Kyle.
  • 00:56:36
    But still not over him calling me old a few weeks ago.
  • 00:56:40
    Kyle never poke the bear.
  • 00:56:41
    Have you not learned this by now?
  • 00:56:43
    I speak more often than you.
  • 00:56:44
    And I speak better than you.
  • 00:56:46
    So just let it go.
  • 00:56:49
    I don't know about that second part, actually.
  • 00:56:51
    I don't know about that at all.
  • 00:56:53
    Uh. Here's one, here's one, here's one.
  • 00:56:56
    Uh, how about this one?
  • 00:56:58
    This is, this represents all the --
  • 00:57:03
    All the streaming services I have.
  • 00:57:04
    You know, back in the day, we used to have cable, right?
  • 00:57:08
    And very few of us have cable.
  • 00:57:10
    We've just got we're streaming things
  • 00:57:12
    and it's Wi-Fi and it's connectivity.
  • 00:57:14
    When we used to have some early campaigns,
  • 00:57:18
    I would, one of the things we did in our first campaign.
  • 00:57:20
    I'll just show you some numbers here.
  • 00:57:22
    Not because - well, just sharing.
  • 00:57:25
    Sometimes we share numbers or things
  • 00:57:27
    that someone's done it inspires us
  • 00:57:29
    or helps us go, "Oh, that's interesting. Look."
  • 00:57:31
    First time Crossroads went through a campaign,
  • 00:57:33
    we had a family of five, and we had
  • 00:57:35
    a family of five and a household income of $75,000.
  • 00:57:40
    And we gave a commitment.
  • 00:57:44
    We were tithing a bit beyond the tithe,
  • 00:57:45
    if I remember correctly.
  • 00:57:47
    And then our commitment above and beyond
  • 00:57:48
    what we regularly give was about,
  • 00:57:50
    I think it was $33,000 over three years.
  • 00:57:53
    That's a lot of money back then,
  • 00:57:55
    a lot of money today, a lot of money,
  • 00:57:56
    especially a lot of money in all
  • 00:57:58
    those circumstances where we were and everything.
  • 00:58:00
    And one of the ways we did that is
  • 00:58:01
    we put up on the table cable and we said,
  • 00:58:04
    "God, we could probably give,
  • 00:58:05
    if we didn't have cable for three years."
  • 00:58:08
    I remember and my kids remember,
  • 00:58:10
    they still talk about it like it was these hard,
  • 00:58:13
    these hard things that they went through
  • 00:58:15
    that were like badges of honor
  • 00:58:17
    that they hated at the time,
  • 00:58:19
    but they grew to love it and informed them.
  • 00:58:22
    I remember my kids at the top of our stairs.
  • 00:58:24
    We lived right beside our apartment complex.
  • 00:58:26
    They were the top of the stairs on a landing,
  • 00:58:27
    looking through our window into
  • 00:58:30
    the apartment's window to watch their TV
  • 00:58:33
    without any sound, because we had no TV to watch,
  • 00:58:37
    or at least we couldn't pick up
  • 00:58:39
    any of the shows they wanted to.
  • 00:58:40
    We had that. We had that on the table.
  • 00:58:43
    This is also things like vacations or trips.
  • 00:58:50
    I have a trip that I was planning on doing
  • 00:58:53
    sometime in January.
  • 00:58:55
    A motorcycle trip to Baja, Mexico.
  • 00:58:58
    By the time you fly into California,
  • 00:59:01
    ship your bike, and then ride the Baja Peninsula
  • 00:59:03
    down and back, it's very, very pricey.
  • 00:59:07
    And this is one of the things,
  • 00:59:08
    Lib and I don't know what we're going to do
  • 00:59:10
    with our commitment in a few weeks.
  • 00:59:11
    We don't know.
  • 00:59:13
    Again, we've been on this journey
  • 00:59:14
    a lot longer than any of you, you know?
  • 00:59:16
    And we're still not sure.
  • 00:59:18
    So one of the things I did feel God say to me is,
  • 00:59:22
    "Hey, man, it's probably too early
  • 00:59:23
    for you to go do that motorcycle thing."
  • 00:59:26
    Like, yeah, I put that up on the table already
  • 00:59:28
    and like that money is going to go
  • 00:59:29
    towards our commitment, whatever that is.
  • 00:59:31
    He put that on the table and already
  • 00:59:32
    there's other things here that God may want,
  • 00:59:34
    but that one already God said,
  • 00:59:36
    "Yeah, I'll take that one, I'll take that one."
  • 00:59:37
    So that saved a lot of money that \
  • 00:59:39
    we can put elsewhere here.
  • 00:59:41
    One more, one more. This is something new
  • 00:59:43
    and unique for me because when I've done
  • 00:59:45
    this exercise in the past,
  • 00:59:47
    this wasn't a part of the gig.
  • 00:59:49
    I have retirement accounts.
  • 00:59:51
    I've always had those retirement accounts,
  • 00:59:54
    but I don't -- a retirement account rather,
  • 00:59:56
    but I can't really get to it.
  • 00:59:59
    But now I'm getting so old
  • 01:00:02
    and sometime in the next three years
  • 01:00:03
    I could get to it. I could get to it.
  • 01:00:06
    That's on the table, that's on the table.
  • 01:00:08
    And here's the thing that I've never had before.
  • 01:00:10
    In the last several years is the first time
  • 01:00:12
    I owned some stocks, I have a brokerage account,
  • 01:00:16
    and I get these statements and I go online
  • 01:00:19
    and I look and, of course, if you have that,
  • 01:00:21
    if you're blessed to have that, you know the drill.
  • 01:00:23
    Go online. You just want to see a higher number.
  • 01:00:26
    And every time you see a higher number,
  • 01:00:28
    that's your new baseline.
  • 01:00:29
    And the market dips, you're like,
  • 01:00:31
    "Whoa, what the heck happened?"
  • 01:00:32
    That's called the market. It's called the market.
  • 01:00:36
    And I realized that I keep thinking that
  • 01:00:40
    then my next high is my absolute minimum.
  • 01:00:42
    And I said, "God, this is not my nest egg.
  • 01:00:45
    This is Yours. And you can call
  • 01:00:47
    any part of it back at any time."
  • 01:00:50
    Part of what we're going to do is
  • 01:00:52
    absolutely stocks and stuff that we have in this,
  • 01:00:54
    a portion or whatever it is.
  • 01:00:55
    I don't know what it is.
  • 01:00:56
    I haven't heard that from God,
  • 01:00:58
    but I know that's on the table, whatever God wants.
  • 01:01:00
    Money sits there and is parked there for
  • 01:01:06
    I'm not even sure what the purpose is.
  • 01:01:08
    Or money goes to bless people
  • 01:01:10
    and bring people into the Kingdom of God.
  • 01:01:12
    That's an easy one.
  • 01:01:14
    All of this stuff, all this stuff,
  • 01:01:18
    all this stuff really comes down to this,
  • 01:01:21
    really what I could just do is I just --
  • 01:01:25
    I'm on the altar. I'm on the altar.
  • 01:01:29
    My whole body.
  • 01:01:30
    Romans 12:2 says live as a living sacrifice.
  • 01:01:34
    A living sacrifice, so I go on the altar,
  • 01:01:37
    but that doesn't mean I necessarily get killed.
  • 01:01:39
    It means I'm living on the altar.
  • 01:01:42
    I'm having a good time.
  • 01:01:43
    Let's do some push ups in here.
  • 01:01:44
    I'm having a good time up here.
  • 01:01:45
    But I'm God's, and everything I have
  • 01:01:47
    in my pockets is all God's.
  • 01:01:49
    I'm living and enjoying life, but I am God's.
  • 01:01:52
    There's nothing that I think that I don't run by Him,
  • 01:01:55
    nothing I own that isn't His.
  • 01:01:56
    He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
  • 01:01:58
    and He owns everything in my brokerage accounts
  • 01:02:01
    and everything in my house, every, everything.
  • 01:02:04
    And I do it joyfully because I am a living sacrifice.
  • 01:02:10
    When you cross to this, really cool things happen.
  • 01:02:12
    We've had people who have done this and, like,
  • 01:02:15
    gone an entire three years
  • 01:02:17
    and not not bleach their hair or colored their hair
  • 01:02:20
    and put that money into the things of God.
  • 01:02:21
    I remember one woman said, "I'm not going to --
  • 01:02:23
    I'm not going to smoke cigarettes for three years."
  • 01:02:25
    And she smoked a lot and all that money went off.
  • 01:02:28
    We had a woman last year that said,
  • 01:02:31
    "Man, I could save money at the laundromat
  • 01:02:33
    if I don't dry my clothes.
  • 01:02:34
    I'm just going to hang dry them instead."
  • 01:02:38
    Yeah, you hear these stories
  • 01:02:40
    and it really belittles somebody like me,
  • 01:02:42
    like, my gosh, that is generosity, geesh,
  • 01:02:46
    but it's also a living sacrifice.
  • 01:02:48
    And those folks are happy as clams.
  • 01:02:50
    I don't know why do we say happy as a clam?
  • 01:02:52
    How do we even know a clam is happy? I don't know.
  • 01:02:55
    Here's one woman's story of being a living sacrifice.
  • 01:02:59
    - I grew up Catholic, baptized as an infant,
  • 01:03:02
    went to church every Sunday,
  • 01:03:03
    went to Catholic school growing up,
  • 01:03:05
    but never really felt a relationship with God.
  • 01:03:08
    Definitely felt more, like, legalistic.
  • 01:03:11
    Like, you've got to follow the rules
  • 01:03:13
    and check all the boxes and do the right things.
  • 01:03:17
    And went to college,
  • 01:03:19
    completely fell away from church.
  • 01:03:21
    And then when I graduated, I found myself
  • 01:03:24
    wanting to find a church home.
  • 01:03:26
    My brother had started coming to Crossroads.
  • 01:03:29
    He invited me to come, and he had warned me
  • 01:03:31
    that it would be very different
  • 01:03:33
    from anything I'd ever known church to be.
  • 01:03:35
    But I instantly felt comfortable, I felt welcomed,
  • 01:03:41
    I've actually feel like I've grown.
  • 01:03:42
    I feel like I have a relationship with God now.
  • 01:03:45
    It's not that legalistic view.
  • 01:03:46
    I don't have that anymore, thankfully.
  • 01:03:49
    I struggled with trusting God always
  • 01:03:53
    because life wasn't going the way
  • 01:03:55
    I thought it was supposed to go.
  • 01:03:57
    It went back to my upbringing
  • 01:03:59
    of we've done everything right,
  • 01:04:00
    why isn't it going our way?
  • 01:04:02
    The one thing I always wanted in life
  • 01:04:04
    was to be married and have kids.
  • 01:04:06
    That didn't seem to be in the cards.
  • 01:04:07
    It wasn't happening. I was in my mid 30s.
  • 01:04:10
    My friends would joke with me
  • 01:04:11
    that I was the queen of first dates.
  • 01:04:12
    I would go, I would date a lot,
  • 01:04:14
    but I didn't find somebody that wanted
  • 01:04:16
    to have a relationship with me.
  • 01:04:18
    I definitely felt rejected.
  • 01:04:20
    I was rejected by men.
  • 01:04:22
    I thought, "Am I not pretty enough?
  • 01:04:23
    Am I not the right size?
  • 01:04:25
    Am I not smart enough?
  • 01:04:26
    Do I not, you know, whatever?"
  • 01:04:28
    I would pray, but I also had some --
  • 01:04:31
    Some harsh words for God.
  • 01:04:33
    Maybe He's not speaking truth to me.
  • 01:04:35
    Maybe He doesn't really love me like He said.
  • 01:04:39
    I doubted my faith.
  • 01:04:40
    It was like a feeling of desperation.
  • 01:04:42
    Like, I just want this one thing.
  • 01:04:44
    I've got everything else in life that I think I need.
  • 01:04:46
    I just want this one thing. Why can't I have it?
  • 01:04:49
    So I started thinking, "Well, I'm smart.
  • 01:04:52
    I'm a strong woman.
  • 01:04:54
    If He's not going to do it for me,
  • 01:04:55
    I'm going to do it myself."
  • 01:04:57
    I looked into my health insurance.
  • 01:04:59
    What coverage do I have to help getting pregnant?
  • 01:05:01
    I called adoption agencies to find out
  • 01:05:03
    what's the process, what's, like,
  • 01:05:05
    can you give me a ballpark what's this going to cost me?"
  • 01:05:08
    I was all in, but I didn't --
  • 01:05:10
    I still didn't feel peace about it.
  • 01:05:12
    So it was 2015, I believe.
  • 01:05:15
    And Crossroads started talking about
  • 01:05:16
    the I'm In Campaign.
  • 01:05:18
    So I started just thinking about it,
  • 01:05:20
    praying about what it should be.
  • 01:05:22
    And I was driving home from church one Sunday
  • 01:05:27
    and I just was overcome with emotion.
  • 01:05:30
    I just started crying.
  • 01:05:31
    I almost had to pull over the car
  • 01:05:33
    because I was afraid I was going to crash.
  • 01:05:34
    And this number came into my head.
  • 01:05:37
    And my first thought was, "Well, that's crazy.
  • 01:05:40
    That's a lot of money."
  • 01:05:42
    And then I just felt like I heard God,
  • 01:05:45
    not an audible voice, but I just knew that
  • 01:05:48
    He was speaking to me and He said,
  • 01:05:51
    "Just give it to Me and I'll take care of you."
  • 01:05:53
    And that number was what I thought
  • 01:05:55
    it was going to cost me to have a child.
  • 01:05:57
    Yeah, that day in the car,
  • 01:05:58
    I definitely felt like it was a surrender to God.
  • 01:06:00
    It was I'm going to surrender my finances,
  • 01:06:03
    and I'm going to surrender my life and my dreams
  • 01:06:07
    that I thought I could fulfill myself.
  • 01:06:09
    I'm going to surrender it all to Him
  • 01:06:11
    and let Him take control of my life.
  • 01:06:15
    And He did amazing things.
  • 01:06:17
    I felt like, "Okay, well,
  • 01:06:19
    I'm probably not going to be a mom.
  • 01:06:21
    That's just not what God wants for me.
  • 01:06:23
    My path is something different."
  • 01:06:25
    I don't know what that is, but I also felt peace.
  • 01:06:28
    Like, I'm okay with it now.
  • 01:06:30
    Like, whatever it is, it's in His hands
  • 01:06:33
    and it's going to be amazing.
  • 01:06:34
    And I'm going to just follow
  • 01:06:36
    whatever He prompts me to do.
  • 01:06:39
    So that's what I did.
  • 01:06:41
    It was about a year and a half later, I met Mark.
  • 01:06:44
    He asked me out, we met for a drink.
  • 01:06:47
    We started dating and he came with a daughter.
  • 01:06:51
    The one year anniversary of our first date he proposed.
  • 01:06:55
    Six months later, we got married.
  • 01:06:57
    And he is the most wonderful man,
  • 01:07:00
    who loves me like I didn't even know
  • 01:07:02
    it was possible to be loved.
  • 01:07:04
    We've just continued to grow as a family spiritually.
  • 01:07:08
    Both Mark and Lauren
  • 01:07:10
    have gotten baptized through Crossroads.
  • 01:07:14
    One of the things that just touched my heart
  • 01:07:17
    immensely was she wanted, at our wedding,
  • 01:07:19
    she wanted to give a speech.
  • 01:07:21
    And she was, I think she was 13.
  • 01:07:24
    And she got up and thanked me
  • 01:07:27
    for bringing her and her dad back to God.
  • 01:07:31
    So it's just it's been really special to me
  • 01:07:35
    to kind of help her on that journey.
  • 01:07:38
    And it just felt like it came --
  • 01:07:40
    Like my story came full circle.
  • 01:07:42
    God fulfilled his promise to me
  • 01:07:44
    after I leaned in and trusted Him.
  • 01:07:48
    - That's good stuff right there. Wow.
  • 01:07:55
    One of the most impressive things that
  • 01:07:59
    has happened in our country
  • 01:08:00
    in a long, long, long, long time
  • 01:08:03
    happened very recently.
  • 01:08:05
    Speaking of technology, with Apollo 11
  • 01:08:08
    and how we feel as a church, the technology
  • 01:08:11
    is one of the things that we need to lean into,
  • 01:08:13
    which is why we pour as much money in the app as we do.
  • 01:08:15
    And we want to have upgraded experiences,
  • 01:08:19
    immersive experiences and all of our sites
  • 01:08:21
    that leverages technology and all that stuff
  • 01:08:23
    that we feel an affinity for this.
  • 01:08:26
    But I think it's almost kind of like
  • 01:08:28
    as human beings technology represents,
  • 01:08:30
    like, advancing, getting ahead,
  • 01:08:32
    making life more rich, more full.
  • 01:08:35
    And of course, technology has a lot, a lot,
  • 01:08:37
    a lot, a lot of downsides to it.
  • 01:08:38
    We talk about that a lot,
  • 01:08:40
    but there's also amazing upsides to it.
  • 01:08:43
    And this thing that was so impressive,
  • 01:08:46
    as I said, the most impressive thing
  • 01:08:48
    that's happened in a long, long time
  • 01:08:49
    was SpaceX's recent launch of a rocket
  • 01:08:53
    up into space, at least up towards the atmosphere.
  • 01:08:56
    And the goal was, can they go up
  • 01:08:58
    and recycle the booster?
  • 01:09:00
    You know, when we went, when Apollo 11
  • 01:09:03
    went to the moon in the first second
  • 01:09:07
    they burned more fuel than Charles Lindbergh
  • 01:09:09
    did in his entire flight from New York to Paris.
  • 01:09:13
    It's an amazing amount.
  • 01:09:14
    And then you go up there and you just reject
  • 01:09:16
    all this rocket and the engines and all that stuff.
  • 01:09:19
    It's just wasted. It's gone.
  • 01:09:21
    So what happens if you can go up, bring it back,
  • 01:09:23
    refuel, go up, bring it back, refuel, go, all that stuff?
  • 01:09:27
    18 stories high, 18 stories high
  • 01:09:30
    as it goes up and it ejects.
  • 01:09:33
    And watch what happens when it's on
  • 01:09:36
    its way back down as a result of gravity.
  • 01:09:38
    Here it is.
  • 01:09:39
    - The booster is there on your screen.
  • 01:09:41
    It is making its way back to the launch site.
  • 01:09:44
    We are going to attempt the catch
  • 01:09:46
    using the chopsticks.
  • 01:09:47
    We did hear the confirmation
  • 01:09:49
    that the command was sent to the tower.
  • 01:09:52
    We are go for catch.
  • 01:09:55
    And you can see how fast this vehicle is moving
  • 01:10:00
    on the left hand side.
  • 01:10:05
    - [indiscernible] - Landing burn engine ignited.
  • 01:10:09
    We're now down to three raptor engines.
  • 01:10:12
    We can see those chopsticks now into view.
  • 01:10:27
    - Booster ready for shutdown.
  • 01:10:29
    - [indscernible]
  • 01:10:38
    - This is absolutely insane.
  • 01:10:41
    On the first ever attempt,
  • 01:10:43
    we have successfully caught the super heavy booster
  • 01:10:47
    back at the launch tower.
  • 01:10:50
    What an incredible view.
  • 01:10:55
    - Are you kidding me?
  • 01:11:01
    - Guys, I'm sorry.
  • 01:11:03
    Like, even at this day and age,
  • 01:11:06
    what we just saw, that looked like magic.
  • 01:11:09
    I am, like, shaking right now. That was --
  • 01:11:13
    - Yeah.
  • 01:11:15
    - They're like they're at a football game,
  • 01:11:16
    like, yeah, it's awesome to be fired up
  • 01:11:18
    about technology and smarts and mathematics
  • 01:11:21
    and taking risks. That's awesome.
  • 01:11:23
    Something that's actually like, yeah, that's awesome.
  • 01:11:26
    I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what,
  • 01:11:28
    do we get like that with God
  • 01:11:30
    when we see somebody come to know Christ,
  • 01:11:32
    when we see somebody have a spiritual breakthrough,
  • 01:11:34
    when we see a healing, we understand
  • 01:11:37
    how God has done hard things for us
  • 01:11:39
    and died on a Cross and resurrected
  • 01:11:42
    and the same Spirit that gives life
  • 01:11:44
    to His body gives life to ours?
  • 01:11:46
    Do we have that level of joy and excitement?
  • 01:11:49
    Well, yes, somebody does. I hope we do.
  • 01:11:52
    My goodness. Man, I tell you what.
  • 01:11:57
    The reason why there was such emotion there
  • 01:12:00
    was because it was hard. It was hard.
  • 01:12:04
    That's why if you're catching a baseball with your son,
  • 01:12:07
    they're not going to do anything.
  • 01:12:08
    But when that happened, that was hard and inspires us.
  • 01:12:14
    Hey, have you ever thought this?
  • 01:12:15
    Maybe the reason why God isn't moving more
  • 01:12:18
    or we're not seeing Him do more things
  • 01:12:20
    that we want Him to do is because
  • 01:12:23
    the things He wants to do, He's put them
  • 01:12:26
    in escrow in all of our accounts,
  • 01:12:30
    and He's waiting to do things until we fund it.
  • 01:12:34
    Have you ever considered that? You ever consider that?
  • 01:12:36
    Why is it that we all know it takes
  • 01:12:40
    a lot, a lot of money to go
  • 01:12:41
    from the earth up into the heavens,
  • 01:12:44
    but we think it shouldn't take much money
  • 01:12:45
    at all for the heavens to come to earth?
  • 01:12:48
    I don't -- I don't understand that,
  • 01:12:49
    the reason we think that is because that's hard.
  • 01:12:53
    It's hard. And we don't want to think that.
  • 01:12:55
    We want to think all we have to do is is pray.
  • 01:12:57
    We want to think all I have to do is think nice thoughts.
  • 01:12:59
    We all want to think that the megachurch over there,
  • 01:13:02
    Crossroads, they'll they'll handle it.
  • 01:13:03
    Hey, guess what? The megachurch over there is us.
  • 01:13:08
    It's us.
  • 01:13:10
    And God pulls us together, his family together,
  • 01:13:14
    and He asks us, "Will you be part of
  • 01:13:16
    the lineage that does hard things?"
  • 01:13:19
    That's the history of awakening, friends.
  • 01:13:21
    History of awakenings, revival is
  • 01:13:22
    people do hard things.
  • 01:13:24
    And they're very expensive,
  • 01:13:26
    that's why they don't last long and they just flame out.
  • 01:13:32
    But to see a move of God,
  • 01:13:34
    to have the shot at an awakening,
  • 01:13:36
    which we don't know for sure if you can have it.
  • 01:13:38
    We can we can do the things that are in our territories.
  • 01:13:41
    But ultimately, an awakening that comes across
  • 01:13:43
    the region is something that the Holy Spirit does
  • 01:13:45
    and we can't control the Holy Spirit.
  • 01:13:46
    Jesus says The Holy Spirit is like wind.
  • 01:13:48
    You can't predict Him, He goes here or there,
  • 01:13:50
    but we can predict this.
  • 01:13:52
    If we as individuals don't embrace doing hard things,
  • 01:13:55
    the work of God is not going to happen inside of us.
  • 01:13:57
    It's simultaneously here.
  • 01:13:58
    See the simultaneous thing, the work of God,
  • 01:14:01
    we need to be about pushing that. That's hard.
  • 01:14:03
    But really for us to just grow in the fruit of the Spirit,
  • 01:14:07
    we have -- we need -- we, me, me, I,
  • 01:14:10
    I need the hard thing. We all do.
  • 01:14:14
    That's always how God has formed us.
  • 01:14:16
    So I don't know what God's going to say
  • 01:14:18
    to me and the Tome family with all this stuff.
  • 01:14:21
    I don't know who's going to say with you
  • 01:14:23
    all today is, "Hey, let's join the --
  • 01:14:25
    Let's join the family of God tradition
  • 01:14:28
    and embrace that He calls His children to hard things.
  • 01:14:31
    He loves us and He gives us vision
  • 01:14:33
    and He gives us things that are difficult
  • 01:14:36
    because that's how His children are formed
  • 01:14:38
    and prepared for the future.
  • 01:14:40
    And to be like Jesus, that means we have
  • 01:14:43
    to have a life like His, which was hard.
  • 01:14:47
    God, You're good. You're good and You are patient.
  • 01:14:51
    I can't believe how patient You are
  • 01:14:53
    with soft people like me.
  • 01:14:54
    I can't believe how You, man, You just give me
  • 01:14:57
    chance after chance and you give me
  • 01:14:59
    resource after resource and blessing after blessing.
  • 01:15:01
    I have more things I could have ever, ever imagined
  • 01:15:03
    that I would have.
  • 01:15:04
    I've got an easier life than
  • 01:15:06
    I ever, ever thought that I would have.
  • 01:15:07
    It's really it's great.
  • 01:15:11
    And I also know that unfettered ease
  • 01:15:15
    is not good for my soul.
  • 01:15:18
    And so I give You myself, and I ask for You
  • 01:15:23
    to be clear over the next few weeks,
  • 01:15:25
    and we ask that, God.
  • 01:15:26
    Use our church. Look at these people, God.
  • 01:15:28
    They came in here today
  • 01:15:29
    knowing they were going to get pushed.
  • 01:15:31
    And here they are. They sat through it.
  • 01:15:33
    God, speak to us, nudge us, form us.
  • 01:15:35
    And I pray these things
  • 01:15:37
    according to the name of Jesus. Amen.
  • 01:15:45
    - Man, I've been around Crossroads for 15 years now.
  • 01:15:49
    Started as a volunteer even before coming on staff.
  • 01:15:51
    This place never ceases to push me, like,
  • 01:15:54
    to challenge me and stretch me.
  • 01:15:56
    Some of the stuff Brian said, I'm just like,
  • 01:15:59
    "Dang, that's so good and tough to hear."
  • 01:16:01
    And I'm, honestly, I'm reminded
  • 01:16:03
    of being around this place for a few other seasons like this
  • 01:16:06
    where we're leaning into something financially
  • 01:16:08
    as a church, and the stuff that
  • 01:16:10
    went up on the table was my wife's engagement ring
  • 01:16:13
    and a down payment for a house.
  • 01:16:15
    And those are -- that felt like huge risks at the time.
  • 01:16:19
    And it was and it is.
  • 01:16:21
    And these are also small seasons in my life
  • 01:16:24
    that we grew the most, that we, like,
  • 01:16:26
    saw God show up in real tangible ways.
  • 01:16:27
    So while I'm nervous about what's happening,
  • 01:16:31
    I'm also super excited about it.
  • 01:16:32
    - Man, I love that, and same, same.
  • 01:16:34
    There's a part of me that's like, okay, once again
  • 01:16:38
    there's an opportunity to trust God,
  • 01:16:39
    once again there's a risk, right?
  • 01:16:41
    And I think for all of us there's an invitation in that.
  • 01:16:44
    And so we know that one of the ways
  • 01:16:46
    that you're on this Journey is just by listening
  • 01:16:49
    to the messages and getting a guide and doing this work.
  • 01:16:51
    We also know this. We know there is more
  • 01:16:54
    than we could ever talk about that God has called us to,
  • 01:16:57
    we talk about these four territories: camps, reach out,
  • 01:17:00
    digital, you heard about some of that today,
  • 01:17:02
    and then also sites, immersive experiences at sites.
  • 01:17:05
    And that's why we're doing these things
  • 01:17:06
    called Mission Briefings. I've done one so far,
  • 01:17:09
    and going to do some more coming up.
  • 01:17:10
    And it's just this opportunity
  • 01:17:12
    to make this big place small, to ask your questions,
  • 01:17:14
    to learn more about the things that
  • 01:17:16
    God has actually called us to as a community.
  • 01:17:18
    And we're doing one of these online.
  • 01:17:19
    So I want to encourage you to mark your calendar
  • 01:17:21
    and be there on November 4 at 7:30.
  • 01:17:24
    Our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson is going to be doing one online.
  • 01:17:27
    And, yes, you will be able to still ask your questions.
  • 01:17:30
    So I just want to encourage you to lean in,
  • 01:17:32
    take advantage of all the ways that
  • 01:17:34
    you can be together and be on this Journey with us.
  • 01:17:37
    - Yeah, that's right. And the whole 10X Push,
  • 01:17:39
    it's about bringing heaven to earth, right?
  • 01:17:42
    And that happens spiritually,
  • 01:17:44
    and that also happens physically as we meet
  • 01:17:47
    not just spiritual needs
  • 01:17:48
    but meet physical needs right where God has us.
  • 01:17:51
    And one of the ways that's coming up, it's super practical
  • 01:17:53
    and we'd love for you to be involved in
  • 01:17:55
    is Thankgiving Food Drive.
  • 01:17:56
    We've done this for over a decade.
  • 01:17:58
    Tens of thousands of meals that we've made happen for families.
  • 01:18:02
    So, if you're in a part of the world,
  • 01:18:04
    or specifically a part of the country where
  • 01:18:05
    blessing someone with a Thanksgiving Food Drive box,
  • 01:18:08
    like, making sure they have an incredible meal
  • 01:18:10
    this Thanksgiving, we'd love to help make that happen.
  • 01:18:13
    We will ship you a box with all the different lists
  • 01:18:15
    and everything you need to make
  • 01:18:17
    an incredible meal for somebody. You can sign up.
  • 01:18:20
    If you are local near one of our physical sites,
  • 01:18:22
    you can pick up those boxes beginning next week.
  • 01:18:24
    But if you're online we'll ship it all to you
  • 01:18:26
    so you can get started.
  • 01:18:27
    Just head to Crossroads.net/TFD.
  • 01:18:30
    - We are so glad that you joined us today.
  • 01:18:32
    And I hope you were impacted.
  • 01:18:33
    I hope that God stirred something in you.
  • 01:18:36
    Maybe there's something God's illuminating
  • 01:18:38
    and He wants you to put on the table.
  • 01:18:40
    I want to encourage you to keep saying yes.
  • 01:18:42
    As you keep saying yes,
  • 01:18:43
    I believe God can spark revival in you.
  • 01:18:45
    That's what we're all looking for is a 10X impact
  • 01:18:48
    and God wants that for your life.
  • 01:18:49
    So we will see you right back here next week.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. Describe your “perfect day.”

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. How has technology helped connect you with others?

  4. Describe a moment within the past week that was hard, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. How did you respond to the difficulty?

  5. Take a moment to reflect on someone who has positively impacted your life. What did they surrender to be there for you?

  6. Now think of someone you have positively impacted. What kind of sacrifice did that impact require?

  7. Read Hebrews 11:32-39. What is your reaction when you hear these stories?

  8. If you were to lay some things in your life on the table for God, what would they be? What is one step you can take this week to begin to surrender those things to God?

  9. Let’s end our time praying together. You can say something like;

    “God, thank you for providing for us in our lives, and we know You have more to give. Help us to see Your vision and give us strength to do the hard thing. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

__Bonus Questions! __ Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Is there something that seems impossible to give up right now? Why do you think that is?
  • As the 10x Push continues, do you sense God nudging you or pushing you towards anything?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

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Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Oct 26, 2024 • 1 hr 18 mins 55 sec

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